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"Quantacat's name is still recognised even if he watches on with detached eyes like Peter Molyneux over a cube in 3D space, staring at it with tears in his eyes, softly whispering... Someday they'll get it."

I've seen people saying they've used their xbox controllers for flying and their keyboard and mouse for everything else. I hate flying with K+M, so could someone tell me how they set up the xbox controller because I haven't seen an option for it?

On the kb+m issue I find that as long as the mouse sensitivity is high enough (I play with mine in the silly levels and a high dpi mouse) then it's a lot easier than the controller for when you need good aiming and it makes dogfighting a hell of a lot easier as your turns can be a lot tighter.

People often suggest that you bind pitch up/down to mouse thumb buttons if you have any, to enable the swiftest possible turns for dogfighting. Tilt the plane by moveing the mouse sideways, then press the pitch up button to make the tightest turn possible.

It's also useful to use both the yaw (A/D) and roll+pitch (mouse) at the same time to make turns quicker.

When dogfighting try to keep behind your target. Make sure to slow down whenever your target makes a sharp turn to keep them in your sights. Use your afterburners to catch up if needed.

Conversely, slowing down will allow you to make sharper turns, and might throw less experienced pilots off. Slow down, turn, boost away on your afterburners.

(Tips from someone who has the theory but not the practical skills...)

"Quantacat's name is still recognised even if he watches on with detached eyes like Peter Molyneux over a cube in 3D space, staring at it with tears in his eyes, softly whispering... Someday they'll get it."

You'll loiter quite slowly whilst being able to dip your nose between 30-40 degrees and look around by using the yaw control. No-one on the ground will see you (although beware high ground level in relation to max altitude) and you'll be out of range of any AA (see previous caveat). You'll see all but the low flying aircraft beneath you, and most flyers never bother looking right up for threats.

Wait for a nice juicy target and just drop on them. Avoid getting stuck in a turning fight by;

Shoot at target whilst above them (You can keep your forward velocity quite low to get more shots off).

At this point, you can level out and tail them if that's a viable option, otherwise;

Dip below their altitude whilst behind them if you went in hot (attacked head on), then use your afterburner to climb back up to loitering altitude. You probably won't kill the target, but they're unlikely to find you if they turn for a fight.

If attacking them from behind, dip below their altitude whilst still behind them and either;

Stay below and behind them whilst you shoot them,

Or head back to loitering altitude whilst raking them with gunfire on your way back up.

Avoiding a turning fight is the best way to stay alive if you're on your own. The more altitude you have, the more room you have to shake off trailing enemies. Dropping down to hug the ground looks cool, but gives you less room for three-dimensional manoeuvering and increases your chance of gravel rash or lead poisoning from ground fire.

Avoid becoming target focussed. You will die and spend 10 minutes regretting your impulsive actions whilst waiting for your Scythe to come off cooldown. Pay particular attention to your bloodlust when attacking head on or under heavy fire whilst engaging ground targets. Turn ninety degrees to the threat and run like hell but pay attention to the battle & terrain around you; this manoeuvre is amusingly called PUMP

Helps if you have a wingman to watch your arse whilst you attack (250-500 metres separation). Take it in turns to attack a target rather than both going in; you can't see behind you, but your wingman will have a great view of anything threatening your rear.

If you have a wingman, feel free to enter a dogfight. Your wingman is there to fill in the blanks of your situational awareness and tackle any threats to you. Your wingman can tell you where the enemy is and what he is doing.

For advanced buddy-buddy, tailpipe loving set up a Grinder.

What's a Grinder?

Fly to loitering altitude and fly a racetrack pattern (ie, the shape of a running track). Set up 180 degrees opposite your wingman and both fly around the racetrack... as if by magic, you have a total 360 degrees view between the pair of you.

Once you see a target (for instance, that sausage jokceys libby that bombed your chip-shop/granny's house/pub), execute the slashing manoeuvres detailed earlier. If you've got your teamwork and separation right, then as the flight leader pulls out of the engagement (ie, when he loses sight of the target), the wingman should be able to take his place right away. Now the hard bit which will make you awesome when you pull it off. The flight leader should get into the wingman position, able to watch his buddy's six. When the original wingman disengages (ie, when he loses sight of the target), the flight leader can dive in to take his place... With practice, you can keep this going until the target is dead as you'll always have one of flight in visual contact with the enemy.

Two versus one wins fights. If you don't outnumber your enemy, consider;

Running away ver fast back to your warpgate,
The pair of you make a slashing attack and run like hell before they notice you.
Only engaging if you can guarantee leaving only one bad guy.

99% of dogfights are won by the person who gets the drop on the enemy. Patrol with the external view on. Hover behind hills, rocks, tall buildings etc. and wait for an unsuspecting target.

A good pair of headphones are very useful for hearing where the enemy ESFs are, especially in those tight-turn dogfights.

The air battle has a frontline just like the ground. Go chasing an enemy ESF into his own territory and you might take him down but there will likely be several more like him, not to mention max units/turrets. Don't be afraid to cut off the chase and afterburn for home, putting a waypoint at a safe location can help you get your bearings.

Repair, repair, repair. Do not approach an enemy base with less than full health.

It is very difficult to shake somebody on your six. The best methods I've found are drastic changes of speed, sharp turns and using the environment (sometimes a bit hairy). That's also why I hate flying on Esamir - there is nothing to hide behind!

1. Bind 'pitch up' and 'pitch down' to keys close to hand on your keyboard or spare buttons on your mouse.
I use the usual K+M for flying and shooting but when I need to turn around extremely fast I will hit my pitch up key as it gives you the immediate max turning rate.

2. Remind eject from 'e' if you're using the default wasd and 'r' to reload commands.
I found this out to my horror at 800 metres heigh as I went to reload my main gun and instead flew out of my Scythe to a messy death far below.

You can turn even faster if you roll to the left or right, hit the up button and simultaneously the backspace. Even tighter turns by hitting S to slow down. And it really helps binding the up and down buttons to the forward and back buttons of the mouse, if it has them. There is also a guy in youtube who has bound all pitch keys to the numpad, and uses the right arrow key as fire. That seems to help.

But it seems way too difficult, and the default weapons for the ESFs aren't cutting it, at least for the Scythe. The TTK for the default cannon is way too long, and the Turbo Laser (primary - A2A) and Photon Pods (secondary - A2G) are too expensive. Plus the magazine expansion upgrade seems to be essential. I'm waiting for a double offer on SC, before making a serious commitment.

Also, has any of you tweaked the useroptions.ini to edit the render distance? What is a good one for flying?

*It's all about positioning. Learn the map and keep tabs on who controls where, I've died far too many times because I've chased someone deep into enemy territory. Or straight into an armor column with a lot of skyguard. Likewise, try and stay close to people who can cover you. My rate of survival is so much higher now that I'm not trying to be a hero.

*Like the first point, there are a lot of terrain features you can use to your advantage.

*Uh, I play NC exclusively, and I only fly a Reaver so this only applies to them, the other races have it much different from what I know,so for Reavers: get the hover frame even if you're doing AA. Those air brakes and the better vertical thrust helps quite a lot when you need to reposition, hide or get behind someone. It also makes flying close to ground almost trivial.

*Composite armor isn't as good as the Camouflage one when you're doing AA. Not showing up in the radar and the increased lock on time helps quite a bit. Reaver is a flying tank, so you will have enough time to get the hell out of flak fire unless you blunder into multiple lines of fire.

*Get the first level of flares, fire them when the first missile is about to hit. That will probably break the lock on the second one as well.

*I've found that diving helps when under flak fire, especially from the Tech lab turrets since they can't aim down. Trying to get out of their line of sight is the best idea, if you go away for a few seconds people will switch targets and forget about you. ( provided there's someone else to shoot at )

*Try to stay above Liberators, getting behind (or under ) them can be deadly if their gunners are any good.

*Run away if you feel you're outmatched!

*I'll just repeat the first point here with more emphasis on one thing: Never fly near an enemy warpgate unless you're about to down a full Galaxy or something. There will be too many enemy fighters there.

Oh well, that's pretty much all I know about flying, and keep in mind I'm still pretty shit at this game, so all of these points I've learned by dying over and over again. Hope it helps someone with not making the same mistakes :P

Get flares. Best points you can spend as a flyer. There's always some dick in an anti-air fighter with A2A missiles, and in the rare instances there isn't there are two heavies with AA lock-on missiles instead.

Before flying over enemy territory, check your map and put your personal waypoint on a convenient friendly base where you can repair and resupply. Even better if the turrets are manned, to deter any aircraft who might be chasing you.
If you ever get turned around, or just freaked out by unexpected AA fire, just head for the blue waypoint.

If the enemy has air superiority, consider just flying somewhere else.

If the enemy has air superiority and you can't just fly somewhere else, fight dirty - get your squadmates to set up a sunderer and a couple of AA Maxes behind a hill, then fly out and get the attention of a fighter or two and lure them into your trap.

Does anyone have any thoughts on which performance slot to focus on? I've been thinking of going for the hover stability airframe for my Scythe as its useful in many circumstances. Or would I be shooting myself in the foot when it comes to dogfighting?

Last edited by Firkragg; 12-12-2012 at 12:35 PM.

“I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it.
"CATS", he said eventually, "CATS ARE NICE.”